


Role Reversing Murders

by Shadowmaster68



Category: RWBY
Genre: Bad work summary, Cops AU, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:18:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2623163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmaster68/pseuds/Shadowmaster68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's an AU where Blake is a police officer. Ruby is…something. Read to find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Serial Partners

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to ChaosLink for proofreading this. Comment away please, I enjoy hearing back from my readers.

Blake sighed as she fell into her desk chair. She had just finished one of her biggest serial killer investigations for the city of Vale. Vale, as sad as it was to think about, was a known playground for murderers and serial killers, and that had resulted with an investigative branch of the VPD, designed specifically to hunt serial killers.

The Rose Maniac had been her nickname, yes it had been a she, you would be surprised just how much murderous intent a women can keep locked up inside. Ruby Rose had been a nineteen year old girl, only two years younger than Blake herself. Her total victim count had tallied up to around thirty. Most belonging to the Beowolf and Ursa families, though the occasional Nevermore, Taijita, and Deathstalker family members had been included, all of which were known gang families who were known for killing without saying much, and always were able to get away with there horrible crimes.

The girl had earned her nickname from the blood red roses that had always ended up polluting the crime scene, mingling greatly with the blood. Her first time coming to a crime scene, she had just thought that the petals weren’t actually there and her eyes were playing tricks on her, until the forensics team had begun to collect the damnable things out of the blood.

It had been almost impossible to figure who the killer had been for all the murders. The autopsy reports had always indicated a massive blade, that had latter been identified as a scythe. The rest of her team had almost tried to rename the killer the “Rose Reaper,” but had decided it to scare the public as little as they could.

Then it finally hit them, the amount of rose petals left behind meant that the private garden had to be massive to leave anywhere near the amount that seemed to be left behind. That had actually narrowed it down to about three households, The Schnee household (who Weiss, the captain of the squad, had insisted they search there FIRST), the Fall house hold (which Cinder insisted they didn’t need to search, but they still did) and finally, the Xiao-Long house hold.

The owner of the place had two young girls with him, Yang Xiao Long, and Ruby Rose. They found the murder weapon under the younger of the two girls beds, and had arrested her on the spot, only for her to plead guilty during the trial.

When Blake Belladonna had finally gotten the woman alone in the interrogation room, she had turned the camera off, and made absolutely certain that no one was on the other side of the one-way-window, she turned to the young girl and asked her, “Why? Why go after all of these families?”

Ruby looked up at her with sad silver eyes and said, “Because sixteen years ago they all murdered my mother, the head of investigations on them. They murdered her, and when the killers were brought in for trial, they had gotten away with more freedom then a bird. The police simply closed the case, and decided that it was no longer worth investigating.”

“Then why didn’t you join the force like your mother had and try to go after them legally?” Blake asked, having heard of the legendary Summer Rose, and all of the various cases she had solved on her own.

“Because if I had found anything solid against the bastards, they would’ve done the same thing to me that they did to my mother, and they would get away once again. That’s why I played Judge, Jury, and Executioner for all of them, because they would have done the exact same thing to me.” Ruby had said, before claiming she was done talking, and that she was ready for the death penalty.

Blake sighed as she leaned back up to her desk to file some paper work pertaining to her, when Weiss walked in. “Can we talk Blake?” she asked, looking serious.

“Something up?” Blake asked casually, though her cat ears were twitching, she could tell something was bothering her boss, and she wasn’t quite sure what it was.

“Well…the higher ups have made an executive decision,” Blake groaned loudly. Whenever the higher ups made an executive decision it usually ended badly. The last one had been for faster cop cars, which is fine, in theory. However, to make up for the new speed, they were less durable, meaning it took fewer shots from the people shooting at them to blow up their pursuers.

“They’ve decided that you will be getting a partner,” Weiss said hesitantly. Blake frowned at this, the Serial Killer Investigations department was always one person, that usually had basically the same amount of control in the building as that of the Sargent in charge. “Your new partner is one you should know fairly well,” Weiss continued.

Blake frowned further at this, there were only two people on the force she really knew all that well, and those people were Lie Ren, and Weiss. Ren and herself usually got along simply by discussing various books they had both read, and had become fast friends. As for Weiss, in truth, it had been because Blake had had a mild crush with her superior for a short while, but while that had ended up fading quickly when she had realized just how much their personalities ended up being at ends, they had remained friends.

“Who is it?” Blake finally asked.

“Well it’s-“ she was interrupted by the sound of the bell that had been placed on the door. The idea had been Nora Valkyrie’s, though Weiss had agreed with it quickly when she realized it would now be next to impossible for anyone to sneak in or out of the place, and now no one would be able to escape one of her lectures. “Here she comes now,” Weiss finished, gesturing to the people walking in.

Blake leaned a little to her left so that she could see past her computer, just in time to see someone dressed almost exclusively in red and black. They had a large red cape, “No…” Their hair was black except for where it ended in red tips, “It can’t be…” They had two armed officers walking behind them and their hands plainly cuffed in front of them, “Weiss please tell me that she’s not here for what I THINK she’s here for.”

“I’m sorry Blake,” she said looking pitifully at her friend, “It’s like I said, the higher ups made an executive decision.”

“Heeellllllooooo again Miss. Belladonna,” Ruby Rose said sounding very cheerful for seeing someone that had gotten them arrested.

Blake only grimaced and looked up pleadingly at her friend, who only shook her head in response and told the escorts they could go. “I’ll leave you two alone to get settled, if you need anything Blake, don’t hesitate to get me.”

Blake merely nodded and did her best to ignore the red caped girl who had plopped down in one of the chairs across from her desk. She knew subconsciously that it would be a very, VERY bad idea to ignore the girl, but also was seriously hoping that if she focused enough on her work, the girl would be taken back to her cell in whatever psyche ward she was supposed to be detained in.

“So…am I just supposed to stay with you now?” Ruby asked suddenly, breaking the silence.  
 Blake nodded again and said, “During the job it will be best if you stay where I can keep an eye on you.”

“No, no. You misunderstood. Those guards that were escorting me signed some sort of probation paper work, and one of them directly told me I wasn’t going to be their problem anymore.”

Blake’s head snapped to the girl now, trying to comprehend what she just heard. “Wait…so you mean to say…that they not only expect me to work with you on cases, but now I’m going to be keeping you in my home?!”

“Well I don’t know about staying in the same place as you, but I was kinda sorta kicked out of the prison,” she said, looking the very guilty now.

“Come with me, now!” Blake growled fiercely. The younger girl yelped a bit and immediately got up, trailing quickly behind her.

Blake stormed through the door into Weiss office and yelled, “She’s just supposed to live in my apartment now?!”

Weiss looked up, though she was lacking any aggression at being yelled at from her subordinate, “Apparently. The board looked into your housing situation, and saw that you had a room to spare, and once again decided that it would be best for her to be there as well. If you’re worried, I can find another place for her to stay.”

Blake groaned, knowing full well that the other place would end up with Ruby staying with Weiss instead, and Blake would not be able to live with herself if Weiss was killed by her charge simply because she didn’t know the charge quite as well as she should have.

“She can stay with me, but the board has to pay for the new things I’ll be needing,” Blake said unhappily.

“What will you need?” Weiss asked curiously, placing her elbows on her desk and her chin in her hands.

“Bars for the window of the room she’ll be staying in, a new door that I can install that only has one key. I’ll also need her weapon.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow at the last one, while Ruby’s jaw practically hit the floor. “What do you want with Crescent Rose?” Ruby asked beyond bewildered.

"Because I need to be able to keep an eye on your weapon as well," Blake said.

"What would stop me from taking my weapon back and killing you?" She asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"The fact that I'm not related to the Grimm families, meaning I had nothing to do with your mother's murder, and you will have no reason to attack me," Blake replied smirking.

Ruby stared at her for a second, before she grinned, giggled, and then burst into a fit of laughter. Weiss looked at Blake questioningly, but she merely waved the look off.

"Ok, ok," Ruby finally said when she could stop laughing, though she still had a massive grin on her face, which quickly melted away with her next question, sounding much more serious, "You're right, I wouldn't kill you. But would stop me from taking Crescent Rose back, knocking you out, and then continuing my revenge?"

Blake thought for a moment, "Well, first off. I think you feel like you're done. You managed to kill off the leader of each family, along with several others that were true potential threats as a leader, so I'm certain you won't attack them unless they attack you, or someone you care about, first."

Ruby nodded again, frowned, then asked, "What's the second?"

"The second, would be me. You gave up without a fight, meaning you never got to see me fight with Gambol Shroud," Blake said with another smirk.

Which was met with one of Ruby's own. "That a fact? If I'm ever set free we'll have to spar a little, see who is better."

Weiss looked back and forth between the two of them, before sighing and saying, "All of these will be met, we’ll go ahead and have a couple of professionals install the bars while you’re still at work. It’ll all be in place probably around nine, and since your shift ends at 7:30, that will give the both of you enough time to get something to eat. Anything else Blake?”

The ivory haired girl shook her head and turned leaving with the red tipped hair girl trailing behind. Blake shook her head as she sat down at her desk again and the other girl sat down in a chair behind her. “So…what exactly is it we are going to do together?”

“You mean to tell me you have no idea what we’re even going to do?” Blake asked glaring at her over her shoulder.

Ruby shrank back and said, “The guards who escorted me weren’t exactly the most talkative of people.”

Blake groaned again and said, “Did you at least get their names?”

“Ummm…They were Melanie and Militia. Didn’t get their last names,” the girl said, looking down guiltily.

“That’s fine, I know the two, I’ll ask Weiss to speak with them about that before we head out for the night,” Blake said, turing back to her computer, doing her best to finish the case report of the, now ex, serial killer Ruby Rose.

“So…you never did answer my question, what will we be doing around here?” Ruby asked again, sounding as sheepish as she had earlier.

Blake groaned in response, and looked at the time, “4:35,” today is going to be a long day, she thought to herself as she turned her chair around to explain.

***

Here I stand  
Helpless and left for dead  
Close your eyes  
So many days go by

Breaking Benjamin: Dance with the Devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *edit* so, as pointed out to me a while back, the whole DNA thing I originally had here didn't really fit, it offered no assistance with Blake's investigation, it didn't make sense why her name would be registered, but there was no face, no paper trail, nothing for them to go off of, so, I decided I was going to remove it. I'll include what was going to be my explination here for anyone who wants to know.
> 
> *spoilers (not really)*
> 
> So, my reasoning originally, because Summer had been the previous head of serial killer investigations, in my mind, some how it made sense to me that the precinct would have her DNA on file, as well as her loved ones, incase something happened to said loved one, say the Grimm families were to kidnap Ruby and send some of her hair to show they had her, the precinct could use the already registered DNA to see if it matched the sample the sent, or if someone was just trying to scare Summer away, and Ruby was either somewhere else, or, possibly and very sad to think about, dead.
> 
> *end the (not actual) spoilers*
> 
> So, maybe that cleared some stuff up, sorry for any confusion I inadvertently caused, my apologies. Um…I think that's it. Til my next update of something!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HOLY CRAP, UPDATE!!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit this finally got an update, when I came up with the idea for this AU, I thought I would be updating it semi regularly, not leaving it to rot and wither for months on end!
> 
> Thanks to ChaosLink for proofreading this, I know you haven't quite yet, but thanks all the same.

”To begin with,” Blake started, “As you’re well aware, the city of Vale is not the most friendly of places. It’s filled with thieves, murders, terrorists, assassins, and of course, serial killers. There are several places all throughout the city that combat each of these threats individually, but most of them answer directly to a board that connects all of them. With me so far?”

Ruby nodded instead of speaking, and Blake continued, “We will specifically be hunting down serial killers. We occasionally assist the police here, who focus primarily on the murders and thieves, but our top priority are serial killers. Counting you, I have personally taken down four different serial killers, and most of them got the electric chair.”

Blake looked over at Ruby, to see if she reacted at all this information, but she merely shrugged in response, so Blake continued. “When we begin serial killer investigations, we have almost complete control of the place, focusing almost all of the forces abilities on finding the killers.”

“What am I doing here then?” Ruby asked curiously.

Blake frowned and said, “That is the big question actually. I have a few ideas, but I don’t actually know. The board made an executive decision to keep you alive, and send you here, so there has to be a pretty big reason, but we’ll probably find out tonight.”  
 “Why?”

“Because my apartment is actually a couple doors down from a couple of the members, and I’m liable to find out from them.”

“So what were you doing before I showed up?”

Blake sighed and turned to her computer again, “I was just finishing the report that has to be filed about you actually. Filling in the details of how you were caught, your habits, all of that usual stuff, but you were an unusual case, so despite you’re capture being just last week, I’m still having difficulty filing it.”

“How was I different?” Ruby asked curiously.

“You weren’t targeting random people that just so happened to meet what ever requirement that meant your specifics, like blonde hair, or shorter than you, or anything like that. You targeted specific people, and not just anyone, but high ranking members of the Grimm families. That’s probably why you’re still alive actually, since you killed so many of their higher ups, that there isn’t anyone really left to give the orders to have you killed. You actually more closely fit the requirements for an assassin, if it wasn’t for the fact that you weren’t hired by anyone. I was actually tempted to send the report over to the ones in charge of assassinations, but I didn’t think that they would actually do anything with it, except maybe send it back to me.”

“Well I wasn’t hired.”

“I know that, most assassins are very quick to give up their employers if their caught, since they’re mostly just glorified mercenaries, and few are ever actually paid for their silence. I suppose, now that I think about it actually, that you maybe did have a trend, it was just only those that were in charge of the Grimm families, or possible heads of them. That works I suppose,” Blake was now more muttering to herself than she was talking to Ruby anymore. She quickly typed that into the file and turned her chair to look back at Ruby again. “You can probably actually help me finish this, since you’ll know them better than I will.

Ruby grinned a little and said, “I’m happy to help ma’am.”

Blake rolled her eyes in response and turned the computer screen to face the both of them and read from the first line, “Weapon of choice?”

“High Caliber Sniper-Scythe,” Ruby said quickly.

Blake typed that in and looked over the rest, she filled in the ones that she already knew on her own, and looked to Ruby for help on the ones that she didn’t know. Then she hit a weird one.

“Family?”

“Just my sister and father. Their names are Yang Xiao Long and Taiyang Xiao Long. Yang’s my half-sister.” Ruby explained, as if she knew the question that Blake was going to ask before she asked it.

Blake merely nodded and returned to the rest of the list. After that, Ruby was strangely quiet. Earlier she had been fidgety and seemed to constantly rattle the chains that connected her cuffs. Now though, she had gone strangely still and quiet. Blake actually found that the silence was louder than the noises she had been making, and extremely uncomfortable for her, and Blake eventually couldn’t take it anymore and asked, “Is everything ok?”

“I’m fine…just thinking about my mom is all.”

Blake nodded, knowing what it was like to lose family. Her mind temporarily flashed to that fateful night. The blood that had been everywhere. The shine of a knife. The haunting laughter that echoed through her mind.

Blake physically shuddered, and Ruby gave her an odd look. “It’s cold in here,” Blake lied.

Ruby looked around, as if she was somehow able to see the temperature, and shrugged her shoulders and said, “If you say so. Is the report done yet?”  “Yeah, I just have a couple more things I need to fill out and then I can send it off to be filed.”

Blake quickly finished the last couple of lines, one asking where it was that she had lived, the other being an estimated victim count. It was estimated because there had been cases in the past where some of the victims weren’t actually found into long after the killer had been caught. She looked over at Ruby and asked, “You didn’t actually happen to kill more people than I have here, now did you?”

“How many did you put?”

“Thirty.”

“Nope. You caught me after number thirty.”

“So you know the exact number of people that you killed.”  Ruby closed her eyes and nodded instead of replying. “Do you know the names of all of them? Or what they looked like?” Blake didn’t need to know these things. She had already emailed her report. So why was she asking?

Ruby’s brow creased for a moment before she said, “Nope.”

“You don’t remember a single detail about any of them?”

“Other than them fighting back and bleeding a ton when they died, nope. I never really considered any of them people I guess. I know that sounds bad, but in my mind, they were all animals, bears, wolves. scorpions even, that just needed to be put down.”

Blake sighed and said, “Actually, I do agree with you. They’re killers all of them, and everyone knows that they are, but they’re so good at what they do that no one can ever actually pin it on them well enough to get them behind bars, and those that do, tend to die before to long.”  Ruby’s face visibly darkened and she said in a quiet way that actually scared Blake quite a bit, “I know that. Better than most anyone.”

Blake’s hand was hovering by her holster, wishing that she had brought Gambol Shroud with her, just putting her hands on it was a comfort.

Ruby noticed that she had put Blake on edge and quickly apologized, “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to scare you. I don’t do that very often, I promise. The Grimm families just…aren’t that fun of a subject to talk about, do you mind if we talk about something else?”

Blake relaxed and asked, “What do you want to talk about?”

“What is your place like, since I’ll be staying with you and all.”

“It’s a pretty standard apartment. It’s a two bedroom one and a half bath. There’s a decently sized kitchen, the living room is a little on the smaller side, but I do have a flat screen.”   
Ruby smiled at the thought of the place and asked, “You can cook?”

Blake nodded and said, “A little. I tend to make bigger meals for myself most nights, unless I’m working a case, then it’s takeout so that I can focus more on my work.”  “Sorry,” Ruby whispered.

“Why are you sorry?” Blake asked.

“Because I had you eating take out for, how long were you on my case?”

“Two months.”

“Two months of take out. Bleh! I think I know why you were so intent on catching me now.” Ruby said jokingly.

Blake rolled her eyes and thought about it. Two months. It was amazing that she HAD caught Ruby that fast. Even with all the clues that pointed toward her, it was still amazing that she had gotten captured so quickly. Most serial killers were on the prowl for at least a year, on average taking one victim per month. Ruby though, she had been taking one out basically once every two nights. The fact that she had been able to kill so many professional killers with there being little to no planning in between-

Ruby waved a hand in front of Blake’s face, interrupting her thought process, “Miss Belladonna, did you hear me?”

“No, sorry, I was lost in thought, and go ahead and call me Blake, we will be partners, in a sense, after all.”

Ruby laughed at that and replied, “Sure Blake. I asked if you had any instruments in your home?”

Blake thought for a moment before telling her, “I have a keyboard, a piano, and an acoustic guitar.”  “Oh yay! I love to play the piano, and keyboards are pretty cool two!” Ruby cheered.

Blake shook her head with a smile on her face at the antics of the younger girl.

“What time is it?” Ruby asked suddenly.

Blake glanced down at the clock at the bottom left hand corner of her computer screen. Whoa, she thought, we managed to kill three hours by talking and sitting in silence. Blake shook her head and reported the time, beginning to gather some of her things.

“Where are we going to eat? Cause I’m starving!” Ruby groaned and began rubbing her belly, making her chains rattle loudly.  
 Blake laughed lightly before she focused on the chains and had an Oh Shit moment. There was not any place that she could think of where they would serve the both of them while Ruby was hand cuffed.

Blake sighed and thought for a moment. She supposed she could try to hang on for a while longer and make something at home, but that would take to long, and she may well not eat until 11 if she did that, and she seriously doubted either of the two would be able to wait that long. She could order online and go pick it up with Ruby, but that would involve leaving her in her police car alone…and there were far to many ways that could go wrong.

Blake sighed and decided that, as much as she hated the thought of it, the best thing to do probably was take the cuffs off of her. She would have to anyway when they were in her…their apartment anyway. Blake sighed loudly and led Ruby down the stairs to her car. She opened the passenger door for the girl and motioned for her to get. Blake closed the door and stood in front of it for a moment, before sighing again and going around to get in. Why does this Rose girl have to make all of my meals stressful, Blake thought grumpily to herself.

***

Easy to find what's wrong  
Harder to find what's right  
I believe in you, I can show you  
That I can see right through, all your empty lies

Breaking Benjamin: Dance with the Devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can practically hear everyone's "WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?!" from here. This goes unupdated for fucking ever and then you get this. With the amount of time I left this alone and said there would hopefully be an update for it "soon," you probably should have gotten like a million words. And I agree. I don't have an excuse, I suck, I'll admit I suck and hope that those who were interested in this before will come back to it, but it's been alone for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if they've all given up on it and moved on. So, yeah, I suck, I'm fully aware of it, and I apologize. This just kept getting sidelined and everytime I felt like I could work on this, life reared its ugly head and I had to sideline it again. And yet, I could still spit out other things, so I defintely suck, I'm aware.
> 
> Ok, I'm done talking about how awful I am (probably not) and I'm going to talk about the…thing I just gave you. So, maybe it answered some questions? I know it danced around the main one "Why is Ruby, a serial killer, being let out of prison and basically being put on parole?" I think it'll be the next chapter when I answer that (but with how much I suck, who knows when that will be or if that's even true). This one was a bit more focused on Exposition for the story, including hints to something that happened in Blake's past? Hmmm? I wonder what that'll be? *cackles evily* (I told you I was awful, I really do feel bad about this, I'm really sorry)
> 
> I'm not going to promise this will be updated soon, because I'm GUARANTEED to break that promise, and I'll feel even worse about this. Instead, I'll be honest and say, I'm working on something right now. Ok, not right this second, I'm posting this right this second, but I'm in the process of a longer piece that's another AU of sorts. I'm not going to say what the project is, just that it's definitely going to be longer.
> 
> I'm done talking, again I'm sorry I'm so horrible and made everyone wait so often for a new chapter for this, and say I would hopefully be posting it relatively soon, and then not. I really am horrible, and I'm really sorry. I'm going to stop talking now so that all of you can yell at me, if you even think I'm worth it of course.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake is given a more of a background, and some questions that everyone has been asking will be answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is another one that has been Betaed just yet, but that's by choice this time. I finished this a few minutes ago and I just really wanted to post it, so I emailed it off to Happy, and I'm liable to receive an email/or comment/or an email about a comment, that is filled to the brim with corrections for this thing, and when I get that, I will apply then ASAP. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this new chapter, of Role Reversing Murders!

Blake sighed again and glanced over at Ruby, who was starring out the window as the city rolled by. "How does a pizza sound?" She asked suddenly, trying to break the awkward silence that had filled the car.

Ruby nodded and asked, "What pizza place are we going to?"

"I was thinking of Sea Monkey's. I'm friends with one of the owners, and they have some of the best food in town anyway."

“Cool! My sister, Yang, worked there for a little while, got to pretty close friends with Sun there,” Ruby said, here eyes lighting up.

“That’s interesting, what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you said she worked there, as in past tense, so what happened?”  “Oh, well as far as I know, nothing. She was still working there before you found me.”

“Wait, you mean to tell me your sister still works at this restaurant. Actually, back up a couple of seconds, one of the wealthiest families in all of Vale lets the heiress work somewhere like Sea Monkey’s?”

Ruby blushed a little bit, as if she had forgotten that she came from a wealthy family, how in the world something like that could just slip your mind was well beyond Blake. “Well, I was locked up in there for a week, a lot can happen. As for her working there, well our dad was always really lax when it came to stuff like that. He always said to go with your gut, that’s how he became such a successful author. He writes all sorts of fantasy’s that he says he just had a gut feeling were going to be good.”

Blake pulled up to a stop sign and just let her head drop to the steering wheel for a second, hardly believing a single word that she had just heard. It was all just so bizarre, and yet something was telling Blake that Ruby wasn’t lying to her.

“Well, Weiss didn’t say, so I guess I’ll just have to hope you know, is your family aware that you’ve been let out yet?”

“If they are, I don’t know about it.”

“Wonderful, just wonderful,” Blake muttered before sighing and pulling forward. “Do you at least remember your sister’s work schedule? I want to avoid that particular confrontation as long as possible.”

Ruby sank deeper into her seat thinking for a minute before saying, “Yang worked Mondays to Thursdays from twelve to eight, and and Fridays and Saturdays she worked from one to ten, and she got Sundays off.”  “So we are hopefully in the clear then,” Blake said, refocusing herself on her driving. Ruby hummed a quiet affirmative and silently drifted back into her thoughts. The next couple of blocks were done in complete silence, which was incredibly nerve racking for Blake. She enjoyed the peace and quiet sure, but with Ruby in the car, it felt foreign and awkward. When they finally pulled up to Sea Monkey’s Blake actually breathed a small sigh of relief.

She turned to Ruby and gave her a thoughtful look, looking her over to make sure she wouldn’t be turned away for bringing her in there. While Ruby’s outfit was a far cry from the typical fashion of the people of Vale, it was definitely better than if she were wearing the orange jumpsuit most are issued, or the monochrome striped outfits that many cartoons and tv shows enjoy showing off as a prison out fit.

“Alright, we’re going to take a bit of a leap of faith here,” Blake started, deciding there was no point in acting like this wasn’t going to be strained, “Can I trust you not to run if I take the cuffs off?”

Ruby offered a sweet smile and said, “Yeah. You’ve been really nice to me ever since they kind of dumped me on you, so I’m not going to do anything stupid, I promise. At least, nothing beyond my own personal level of stupid.”

“I would call killing thirty people a level far beyond stupid.”

“That wasn’t for any sort of sick joy or pleasure, I did it for Mom, that’s all.”

Blake sighed, but still pulled out her key, she grabbed Ruby’s wrists and pulled them to her while saying, “Please don’t make me regret this.”

The cuffs popped with a light hiss when Blake unlocked them, and the easily slid off of Ruby’s wrists. She gently rubbed at them for a second or two before looking at Blake expectantly.

“What are you waiting for?” Blake asked as Ruby continued to look at Blake.

“For you to get out. I said I wasn’t going to run, so I’m trying to show it by waiting for you to get out first, this way if I try to run, you’re already out to catch me.”

Blake frowned at her for a moment, before deciding that her logic did, in fact, make some sense. Besides, Blake had the only key for the car, she couldn’t do much in there without those. Unless she knows how to hot-wire cars, but even then, Blake would see it and be able to stop her before she got much progress in with it. Blake then gave a small sigh and climbed out of her car. Ruby quickly got out after her, and quietly moved to Blake’s side.

Blake merely gestured up toward the door, and they both moved quietly inside. Luckily it didn’t seem like there was really anyone else here, just a young over in a corner of the restaurant. “Just one moment and then I’ll take you to your seats,” a familiar voice called from the kitchen.

Blake and Ruby casually leaned against a small half-wall that helped separate those who were waiting, from those that were eating. Neptune then strolled out with a practiced smile on his face, one that turned lighter and easier when he saw who was waiting to be seated. “Blake! It’s been to long, how have you been?”

“I’ve been pretty good, thanks Nep. Think you can give us some seats? We can catch up while we wait for our orders.”

Neptune laughed lightly and smiled at Ruby saying, “Sure thing. Hey Ruby, its been a while!”

Ruby chuckled in response and said, “It sure has Neptune, how you been?”

“Better now that I’ve seen you two again, though I never would have thought that I would see the two of you together,” Neptune said cheerily as he led the two girls over to a table in another corner of the restaurant. “So, how did you two meet?”

“Work,” Blake said quickly.

Neptune offered a hiss as if he had been burned and said, “Oh, that sucks. What did Blake here catch you up to Ruby, pickpocketing fairy dust?”

Ruby pouted and said, “Hey, just because those taste great doesn’t mean I would steal them!”

Neptune laughed again and said, “Alright, well any way, I’m assuming you two want your usuals. Do you want to do a split, or two separate?”

“We’ll do a split fourteen inch,” Blake said quickly, glancing over at Ruby who just smiled and nodded in response.

“Alright, I’ll take that up to Sun and then I’ll be back with your drinks.” Neptune said cheerily, as he went back up the kitchen.

“How does Neptune not know?” Ruby asked when he was out of earshot.

“As the head investigator, I had complete control over what the media did and didn’t hear, and I kept it as small of a subject as I could. The only reason you were even publicly known was because that many people dying is impossible to hide, but most of the world has no idea who you are. All that was told to the public was that the ‘Rose Maniac’ had successfully been captured, and that their streak was over.”

“So, only my family knows?”

“As well as Weiss, myself, and the board. The other officers that were present during your arrest were never directly told that was who you were, just that you were dangerous, and that was why I had been called in, but those four know well enough to keep their mouths shut, especially if they figured it out for themselves. The only way anyone else would know would be because one of your family said something about it.”

Ruby just nodded instead of responding and seemed to settle deeper into her seat. Before Blake had a chance to continue their conversation, Neptune had returned with their drinks and was insistent on catching up with the pair.

After about half an hour of chatting the time away with Neptune and deflecting away questions about how the two of them met, a bell from the kitchen could be heard. Neptune glanced over his shoulder, and when he saw that there wasn’t anyone at the counter dinging for him, he sighed and got up, saying he would return quickly with their food.

“Are you ok?” Blake asked when Neptune was back in the kitchen again. "You seem to be doing a lot of brooding."

"How do you know this isn't normal for me?"

"Because I got the sense that your cheerful bubbly attitude from when we were at the station is your usual."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just talking to Neptune made me miss Yang. I used to come here all the time with her while she was working, just hang out in the kitchen talking with Sun and Neptune while they all worked, even helping out every now and again. It was just a fun time, and being here, well, it made me think of those times, that’s all.”

Blake nodded in understanding, there were certain buildings and places that Blake out right avoided because of the memories that they brought up. Some were happy, but those happy ones always lead to deep, dark places that Blake would be content if she were never to visit again.

“You have one too, don’t you,” Ruby said cryptically.

“What?” Blake asked, a little weirded out by the new tone Ruby had adopted suddenly. It sounded almost emotionless, as if she knew what Blake was thinking.

“You have a past that you would rather leave behind.”

Blake’s eyes widened staring at the girl before her in horror, before that infernal laughing echoed throughout the room. The deep, throaty chuckle that haunted Blake’s nightmares and had kept her awake many nights.

She placed her hands over her ears and had to fight the urge to scream as she continued to hear it, reverberating through her skull. “Stop it. Get out of my head! STOP IT!”  “Blake!” Neptune shouted, shaking Blake’s shoulder roughly. Blake removed her hands from her ears and looked around frantically for a few moments before she realized he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there to hurt her. She was safe, and he…he was gone.

Neptune and Ruby both were looking at her with concern clearly etched into their faces. What was that?! Blake mentally scorned herself, You haven’t had a meltdown like that in years! Where the heck did that come from? Was it Ruby, but she looked fine now, was it just my imagination, or did Ruby actually say that. She looks fine now, but she’s a serial killer, she has to know how to play people, its in her nature.

“Blake, are you ok?” Ruby finally asked looking at her like she wasn’t sure what to do.

Blake nodded and offered a weak smile, “Yeah I’m fine. Just…went to a bad place for a little bit there by mistake. I’m fine, honest.”  Neptune and Ruby both nodded understandingly. While Blake had never told Neptune about what it was that Blake heard and saw that freaked her out so much, this was far from her first time doing something like that around him. He knew better than to pry, lest it lead to a rerun of what he had just witnessed, so instead he gestured to the middle of the table and said proudly, “Your pizza, has arrived!”

Steam rolled off the top in small waves, almost inviting Blake to it. On her half there were anchovies, salmon, and instead of the usual pizza sauce, Blake’s half instead had a warm, and absolutely math watering, tarter sauce that was home made here in the restaurant. Blake had asked for the recipe multiple times on multiple occasions, and had always been told that the recipe for it was a secret, and that only Sun knew it.

Ruby took a whiff of her half, the divider in the middle keeping their sauces separated from each other. Ruby’s half looked to be pepperoni, with what appeared to be a whole lot of cheese, enough that it was almost eating the pepperonis that were there.

“It looks great Neptune!” Ruby said before tugging a piece off and staring at it happily. Blake eagerly tore a piece off for herself and took a nibble off of the end, trying to avoid the large amount of heat that the single piece had stored up within it. She smiled widely at the flavor and repressed an urge to moan at the flavor. “It’s as great as ever!” Ruby cheered with a wide smile.

“Agreed. Tell Sun this is absolutely amazing,” Blake said before going back for another bite.

Neptune laughed and said, “I’ll be sure to tell him. I’ll let you girls enjoy your dinner. Come on up to the counter when ever you guys decide you’re done, and if you need anything else, just holler.” Neptune said as he strolled away, allowing the girls to enjoy their pizzas.

Ruby quickly devoured her half and leaned back, relaxing in her seat and looking content with her life right then. A bit ironic, Blake would have thought if she weren’t halfway through her final piece, and busy wanting to savor every single bite of it. When she finished it, she let out a small groan, of both satisfaction at the flavor, and regret that the pizza was gone. She too leaned back in her seat, feeling full and content.

After a few minutes of sitting there in comfortable silence Blake started to get up, and Ruby was close behind her. They both lethargically made their way to the counter where Neptune was leaning by the cash register with an amused grin on his face.

“You girls enjoy yourselves?” Neptune asked as he straightening up and going into “Business mode,” as Sun liked to call it.

“Dinner was great, thanks,” Blake said with a small smile.

“That’s great!” Neptune said proudly, followed closely by a, “You two come back anytime, alright.”

“But I haven’t paid,” Blake started to argue.

Only for Neptune to hold a hand up and say, “How many times do we have to tell you Blake, it’s on the house. The stuff you’ve done for me and Sun, we can never repay you for that, but free meals are about as close as we can get. And as for Ruby here, she’s practically family, we could never charge her.”

“That’s right!” A familiar voice could be heard calling from the kitchen. “You two are awesome, I will never charge either of you a single dime. Now take your free meal and go home!”

Blake just sighed before calling out, “Thanks for the meal Sun, Neptune! I’ll see you around.”

“Come back again!” Was the call from the two as Blake and Ruby walked out the door, Blake feeling slightly guilty about it.

The both climbed into the car and Ruby put her wrists together and offered them to Blake. Blake just rolled her eyes and said, “You don’t need the cuffs. We’re going back to my place, and there’s no reason in having you sleep in the damn things. I will need to see about getting you an anklet though, that would certainly make our lives easier.”

Ruby gave a grin in response and slumped down into her seat, looking at the small radio between them. Once Blake had the car going and had started down the street, Ruby cautiously reached for it, with all the care of someone who was dealing with dangerous explosives, and tenderly pushed the on button while looking at Blake, waiting for her to tell her to leave it alone or to not turn it on. Blake finally just said, “Oh just turn it on and quit acting like it or I will bite you. For now you’ve behaved, and I’m not just going to be unreasonable with you.”

Ruby blushed a little, but did turn the radio on, and began flipping channels until she found one that was playing a soft piano song. “105.4?” Blake read off of the dashboard when the reached a red light and she could spare to take her eyes off of the road for a couple of seconds.

Ruby blushed lightly again and said, “It’s a channel that plays songs from video games.”

“Ok,” Blake nodded, “So what are we listening to?”

“This is uh…Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, from the game Dark Souls,” Ruby said after a moment of thought.

“Isn’t that the game that’s known almost exclusively for its difficulty?”

“Yeah. but its a lot of fun despite the challenge. Plus there’s a lot of lore and fan made theories about so many things in the game and its just a lot of fun to learn the lore and hear all the theories and come up with your own from the ones that you hear and…it’s just a lot of fun.”  “It sounds like it,” Blake said with an amused grin on her face.

The listened in silence for a while, Ruby reciting the names of the different songs that would play, and Blake asking the occasional question about the game that it was from. They reached Blake’s apartment building not long after that and according to the time it was a little after nine, meaning that hopefully the workers would be done by now, or wrapping up at the very least.

Blake parked in her spot near the side entrance. Each tenet was given a parking spot as well as a room (assuming that they paid the little extra that was added to their monthly rental fee) that was clearly marked with their room number on it. They were also given a matching parking pass, and anyone whose pass didn’t match the spot was towed away, ensuring that everyone who paid for their spot, got to keep their spot.

Blake pulled out her keys for the door as she and Ruby climbed out of her car. Blake unlocked the door and held it open, gesturing Ruby inside, before locking her car, and relocking the door behind her. Blake lead the way up the stairs to the third floor, and down the hallway to 3-H. Weiss had called ahead and told the doorman that the workers had been coming and that they were just doing a couple of things to make her room ready for a new visitor. Blake was sure that Weiss had to make it one hundred percent clear to her doorman that anything and everything could be undone with no evidence that it had ever even been done in the first place before he agreed to let the workers in.

Blake opened her door and let Ruby in saying, “Make yourself at home. Sorry about the mess, I hadn’t been expecting company, or I would have cleaned up a little bit. It looks like the workers knew what they were doing and left everything that I had left out the way it had been.”

The place, to Blake looked relatively untouched, but she was sure to Ruby it looked like a mess. Her coffee table was plastered with different papers of suspects and victims, and her large movable whiteboard had large multiple pictures of people and and possible suspects covering it. Despite Ruby’s capture a week ago, Blake hadn’t taken any of it down, a reminder for herself that she still needed to complete the paperwork about her arrest. Now that Blake had finally gotten that done, she would need to clean all of this up and up it in the evidence locker down at the station, where it could be filled away somewhere, possibly for later use by someone else.

“You call this a mess?” Ruby started, “Yang’s room back home would make this place look spotless.”

Blake just gestured further in and said, “If you’ll follow me.” Down the hallway and to the right were two doors, both were shut, but one now had a set of iron bars on the outside. Blake pulled on the bars and they swung open, Blake then noticed the lock that was on the edge of the bars and made a mental note to ask Weiss what the workers had done with the key for that, or at least where they were supposed to have left it. She then pushed the door open and revealed Ruby’s new room. Inside there was little more than a queen size bed in one corner under the window, which now had bars on its inside as well.

“The room’s not bad,” Ruby said as she stepped in and looked around. “Paint the walls red, get some new sheets, and hang a poster or two, and it’s just like home. Hey, where are those instruments you told me about?”

“I usually keep them in my room, which ones do you want in here with you?”

“Just the piano, if you don’t mind,” Ruby said quickly.

“Not at all, as long as you come help me move it,” Blake said. Blake then headed for her room with Ruby following closely behind her, the moved into Blake’s room and inside it was almost like they had stepped into a library. Each wall had a bookcase that went all the way up to its ceiling, and each one was stuffed full of books. The only wall that wasn’t had Blake’s king sized bed against it, putting it as much in the middle of the room as possible, in order to preserve as much of space that could be for the bookshelves. Leaning against one corner and the wall was Blake’s guitar, her keyboard on the opposite side of the bed, and at the foot was the piano, also with books stacked on top of it.

“Wow,” Ruby said as she looked the room in awe.

Blake blushed lightly and quickly moved the books off of the piano and placed them on the floor of her closet, which was a small door that lead to a walk in closet, again surrounded by towering bookcases. “Yeah, I really like to read.”

“That’s the understatement of the century right there,” Ruby said as she looked around the room, still trying to process that this was all real.

“Come on, I need your help moving the piano,” Blake said as she moved to one side of said instrument.

“Right, of course,” Ruby said before quickly rushing to the opposite side of it. Together, the carefully rolled it out of Blake’s room and down the hall into Ruby’s. Luckily they managed to keep it from hitting anything, as Blake was worried it was already horribly out of tune since she couldn’t remember when the last time she had played it had been, and she didn’t to give it to Ruby in any worse shape than she could help it.

After the finally managed to worm it into another corner of the room, the both just stood there for a couple of minutes, just looking at it in the stark and barren room.

“So, we need to discuss the door,” Blake finally said before leaning against the wall. Ruby sat down on her bed and nodded for Blake to continue. Blake sighed before doing just that, “So, for the first week or so, I’m going to lock the gate at around eleven at night, because that’s when I normally go to bed. Once we’ve gotten more comfortable around each other, and I’ve decided I trust you a bit more, I’ll leave it unlocked at night, but until then, you’ll be stuck in here from then until, probably around eight, because that’s when I get up most mornings. I don’t really care if you decide to stay up all night, just beware that there if you’re exhausted or not, we will work like normal, so choose wisely before you ever make a call like that. These walls are fairly good at dampening sound, probably all the books and bookcases in my room honestly, but I almost never hear anything in my room from yours, so if you have trouble sleeping, or just really want to play the piano or something, knock yourself out. That sound ok with you?”

“Well, considering I don’t have much choice in the matter anyway, you’re being awfully generous about all of this. You could just lock me in here at all hours of the day, only letting me out to use the bathroom and eat.”

“You’re my partner, there’s little to no reason to treat you like you’re still in jail, this is my home. I see you as a new roommate. A potentially lethal roommate, but a roommate none-the-less. Tomorrow we’ll see about getting you some different clothes so that you aren’t always wearing the same outfit.”

“We could always stop by my place, get my clothes from there.”

“That’s not likely. I don’t have much of an issue with it, but I’m not sure on how the board will feel about having your family knowing that you are out and walking around. Which reminds me, come on, lets go see if we can find out why you were released in the first place.”

With that, Blake left the room with Ruby following behind her. They went out into the hall and down a couple of doors to 3-D, where Blake knocked loudly at the door. There was some shuffling noise before the door open to reveal Glynda Goodwtich with Doctor Ozpin standing behind her.

“Ah, Blake, I was wondering when we would see you, and I see you’ve brought Miss Rose with you as well,” Ozpin said before turning to Glynda, who gave him a look and then gestured for them all to go out into the hallway. Glynda lightly shut the door behind her and stood slightly in front of it, her posture as positively rigid as it always was.

“I did,” Blake said, “I felt like she has a right to hear the why of this arrangement.”

Glynda scoffed slightly, but then narrowed her eyes on Ruby, who squirmed slightly as she was glared at. “Indeed,” Ozpin said lightly.

“So why was she freed?” Blake asked.

“In truth, to give you an edge. You make up the entirety of our department for hunting down serial killers here in Vale, and hunting down a normal killer is taxing enough as it is. The sort of damage what you do has the potential of to your psyche isn’t something the board desires to see, so an idea was proposed. It’s basis is in the ‘Fight fire with fire’ theory, and the question was proposed, ‘Who would best know how to take down a serial killer?’ Many answers were offered, and you should be flattered to know that a number of them thought the best choice may in fact be you Miss Belladonna. Then, one member offered a suggestion that no one could argue against, ‘Who other than a serial killer, would be able to breach the mind of another serial killer?’ The board argued it over for a few weeks, before it was finally decided that it was the best course of action.

“The new issue presented, was finding a partner that would be able to work with you. One that you could subdue if necessary, but would not view you as any sort of victim. Multiple candidates were looked at and debated over, before ultimately being cast aside. The board had just begun to discus the dismissing the idea, when young Miss Rose’s profile was laid before us. She seemed to be an excellent choice, and the debates quickly lead to her being decided upon as your partner. Thus, she was assigned to your care as a new partner.”

Blake stood in silence, processing everything that she had just been told. When she finally managed to speak she said, “So, the board decided that the best way to fight serial killers was with serial killers, and that Ruby was the best choice for that?”

“That about sums it up, yes,” Glynda said, finally shifting her attention over to Blake.

“We apologize if the new arrangement is an inconvenience, Miss Belladonna, but we hope that this will be a great asset for you,” Ozpin said.

Blake nodded in agreement and let out a small sigh before saying, “It’s fine. It’ll be nice to have a roommate anyway.”

“Did you people discuss anything about my family?” Ruby interjected quickly.

Glynda raised an eyebrow at Ruby, but nodded and said, “We did. We would rather they not know of your release for as long as possible. We know that keeping you out of contact with them completely is impossible, and that is not our goal, but if word travels that a serial killer, whether a possibly reformed one or not, is out and about, one that had already been captured, the fifth that the people have in our current system is liable to crumble and fail, and we could be in serious danger if word about this travels to quickly. If you two manage to capture a decent number, and keep the victim count low, we can begin to gently and slowly feed the information out to society about you two, of course keeping your names out of it as much as we can, and let them get used to the idea of your good deeds.”

“So, I can’t see my family?” Ruby asked with a small pout.

“Not straight away, but after sometime, we are not opposed to you seeing your family, as long as you stay where you can be monitored by Miss Belladonna at all times,” Glynda said, seeming to take some pity on the young girl.

“Well now, its getting late, and I’m sure you too have some talking to do before you turn in for the night, so if you’ll excuse us,” and before Blake or Ruby could respond, both of them had quickly and quietly snuck back into their apartment.

***

I won't stay long in this world so wrong  
Say goodbye  
As we dance with the Devil tonight  
Don't you dare look at him in the eye

Breaking Benjamin: Dance with the Devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was that. What did you guys think? Please let me know down in the comments bellow, because I absolutely love hearing what all of you kind people think of what I've got going.
> 
> Hopefully that answered the big question that I kept hearing with this work. I did try to answer it relatively quickly with this piece, because I have so many ideas and plans for this, and I have no clue on how long this piece will turn out to be. As for those who were asking about the Freezerburn tag, no that's not a tease, the next chapter will contain it. I'll definitely throw it in the next chapter, though it won't be an immediate thing, just like I'll be building the Ladybug aspect of this work, I want to try and build the Freezerburn aspect of it. Because, honestly, I have a hard time seeing either of those ships just falling together (despite having written one shots where that is the case) and I really like the idea of them slowly building up into a real relationship together. Like, Weiss and Yang, I have a hard time seeing them being compatible, without some working at it and becoming a couple. I really find Ladybug adorable, and love seeing them together, but I also love seeing them slowly become a thing and adapt to each other to become a thing. Oh, and before I forget, yes Neptune and Sun are a thing in this piece, and yes I did make their restaurant the same name as their ship for that purpose. I will try to throw little things about them every now and again, but they are by absolutely no means a primary part of this story, so everything about them is going to be a side/mini-arch, without interfering with the main story.
> 
> Anyway, I think I've ranted enough about this piece and my love for the different relationships that I'm putting in it. So I hope everyone loved this chapter, and I will see you in whatever it is I post later, until then, Xiao, hope it won't be Long!

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be totally honest, this was originally just happening because I decided there was simply not enough Ladybug on this site. Then that combined with an idea I had been throwing around in my head for a while, and bam! This happens.


End file.
